Truck delivery ramps are an essential element to any logistics department of any company that produces a physical product. Truck delivery ramps are also critical to the operations of delivery service and moving companies. The process of loading and unloading product from trucks plays a crucial role in delivery efficiency and employee safety. During the course of a delivery, a driver, using a typical truck delivery ramp, will park on the street and unload the truck, typically from the rear. Generally a ramp will be utilized to traverse the truck bed height and the ground. The ramp will be placed, at one end, on the bed of the truck and, at the other end, on the ground. Conventional truck delivery ramps are straight sections enabling the user to unload cargo directly out the back of the truck. A problem arises when the truck parks along the street and a curb or other obstruction is present. Currently, unloading or loading a truck either involves unsafely angling the ramp to traverse the curb, or having to carry the cargo a great distance until a crosswalk or driveway arises. Traversing the curb by angling a delivery ramp presents serious safety issues for the person loading or unloading the truck. A ramp that is designed to be used in a substantially rear-facing unloading capacity will not adequately ensure safety for the user when adjusted or angled laterally. Occupational health hazards aside, there are other practical issues that arise from this particular misuse of ramps including accelerated equipment wear and tear, traffic obstructions and product damage.
Further, the use of conventional straight ramps can be inefficient. This inefficiency is primarily caused by lengthened loading and unloading times. Loading and unloading time becomes a meaningful factor in a business's logistics and is often incorporated into the production cycle. It is therefore of appreciable interest to many businesses to keep loading and unloading time as minimal as possible. Conventional truck ramps lack versatility and when less than ideal loading or unloading conditions arise, this low versatility can require substantial time resources to overcome. For instance, if a truck pulls up to its destination along a curbed road the truck drivers have to spend time creating a safe and manageable alternative unloading path in order to deliver the product. The alternative path taken is inevitably longer or takes more time than unloading the truck directly. For a business that utilizes truck delivery or pick-up, this lost time is a predictable drain on that business's efficiency.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for a truck ramp that can safely traverse curbs and other varying terrain not directly rear of the truck and thereby increasing efficiency, reducing wear and tear, and reducing traffic obstructions and product damage.